Posts tagged sprained ankle

The actress bravely performed a play despite breaking her leg, but the fracture has put her out of action for the next six weeks

On Sunday, Shabana Azmi slipped on the stairs of her home, fractured her leg but still managed to climb on stage the same evening to perform a complex double role in the play Broken Images. But now all further shows of Broken Images in Delhi, Bangalore and Chandigrah will have to be cancelled till Shabana’s broken leg is healed.

“Yes I’ve fractured my left foot, but it has nothing to do with my Leftist leanings,” she grimaces. “My foot will remain in a cast for the next six weeks. We just wrote in a sprained ankle for my character on Sunday. I went on stage pumped up with two injections and four painkillers. No one got to know that my character’s ‘sprained’ foot was actually a real broken bone. That’s acting, my dear.”

But never having been incapacitated like this before, Shabana is at her wit’s end. “I feel so helpless. Maybe this is destiny’s way of making me rest. Until forced, I’d never be at home for more than two days at a stretch. What worries me are all the cancelled shows of Broken Images.”

Though the play’s director Alyque Padamsee has assured her there’s no need to fret, Shabana remains worried. “This is the first time I’ve had to cancel my commitments. And I feel miserable about it. In April I’m supposed to go to London to promote Gurinder Chadha’s It’s A Wonderful Afterlife. I hope I’m able to make it.”

For now, Shabana has plans of taking care of things around the house for the next six weeks. “My domestic staff is in a state of panic, running helter-skelter wondering how they’ll cope with me in the house for six weeks. I wonder how I’ll cope with myself for six weeks!”